Did Stephen A. Smith play in the NBA? Closer look at All-Star Celebrity game's coach

Stephen A. Smith is easily one of the biggest names in sports media for at least the past 15 years. He is the host of the uber-popular “First Take” on ESPN. Smith regularly rubs elbows with former and current athletes across different sports.

Smith relishes going into a debate against any football, basketball and even baseball analysts. He has had some heated arguments on national TV against the likes of Shannon Sharpe, Michael Irvin, Kendrick Perkins and many others. The outspoken host rarely runs out of words in almost any sports discussion.

Despite his incredible basketball knowledge, Stephen A. Smith has never played in the NBA. He did have a scholarship under Hall of Fame coach Clarence Gaines at Winston-Salem in North Carolina. The unheralded guard, however, broke a kneecap that ended a basketball career that never even got off the ground.

With his basketball career over, he concentrated on writing for the Winston-Salem Journal. He even argued in one of his reports that Gaines should already retire from coaching due to his advanced age. From there, he hasn’t looked back again and has built a legendary career in sports media.

---

Stephen A. Smith clarified misconceptions about his basketball resume

Some former and current NBA players try to rile up Stephen A. Smith by emphasizing the journalist’s points per game average in college. Most sites have him listed averaging 1.5 PPG. Over the years, Smith has learned to take the ribbing with a smile.

Smith, however, has made it clear that his listed college average was never right in the first place:

“I’m sick and tired of people lying about my basketball resume. … I was good enough to get a basketball scholarship. I was good enough to get my education paid for. They lying about how I averaged 1.5 points per game. … That’s a lie! It was less. … It was less than that. It’s a lie.

“How about zero because I never played! I cracked my kneecap in half. … They said I never walk straight again.”

Some of Stephen A. Smith’s critics have often used his college stat as a barometer for his status and qualification as an analyst. That hasn’t gone right for most of them as he has never been affected when that is used as the argument against him. He would sometimes even use it to emphasize how far he has come since injuring his knee when he first began to play collegiate hoops.